December 3-17 – Ah, the holidays. Family gatherings, gifts, parties. One tradition we at Open All Night uphold every December is attending movie premieres. Our gift lists unchecked, cookie sheets cold, carols unsung, stockings unhung, we spend night after night after December night going to movie premieres. Oh yes, in addition to the big titles we’ve featured earlier this month, we’ve plumbed our archives back to the beginning of the month and rounded up a bit of what the studios rolled out in this year’s Oscar rush.

With so many films being released, and the new trend for simultaneous releases all over the globe, even the stars themselves sometimes skip the premieres. Michael Caine and director Norman Jewison actually waited around for us to get to the premiere of their Nazi thriller The Statement. This unprecedented accommodation to the press was due to the fact that the Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton vehicle Something’s Gotta Give premiered the same evening (see coverage below).

At the premiere of Tim Burton’s Big Fish, no one dared to ask star Billy Crudup the big question: how could he leave his pregnant girlfriend Mary Louise Parker? Horror flick regular, 7’6” actor Matthew McGrory (towering over Ewan McGregor in photo at left), who is in Big Fish, showed up at the previous night’s premiere, but nobody recognized him, even though he’s hard to miss.

On a snowy Friday night at the premiere of House of Sand and Fog, we stared daggers at a woman carrying a screaming baby into the theater, until we recognized the blonde man she handed the infant to as Paul Bettany, husband of the film’s star Jennifer Connelly. “You like being a dad?” we asked? “I love it!” Bettany replied, marching down the aisle, bouncing the tot.

Richard Gere and Carrie Lowell turned up at the premiere of Neve Campbell’s dance-themed The Company, and at the overcrowded and overheated after party at Elaine’s. Christina Ricci was a no-show, but costar Charlize Theron, a former model, was svelte and glamorous again after gaining weight for her role as a serial killer in Monster.

And now we’re off to holiday shopping, cooking, cleaning, baking and entertaining. But first we need a drink.